Dillion DBM04T

This is an update to my last review immediately below.

I purchased three Adeson vintage trisonics from the Adeson website. Excellent price and service from Adeson, but that's for another review. I installed the pickups myself, which as other people have mentioned is no easy task due to the size difference, but it was totally worth it. These beautiful pickups made this guitar light up like angel glow. It sounds absolutely spectacular with the new pickups. The factory pickups look (and sound) like fridge magnets in a pill bottle by comparison.

Same as before. Very impressive for the price. I have now had the guitar for about 8 months and have been playing extensively. It sounds fantastic and plays like a dream. It really plays smooth and easy and I'm ceaselessly impressed by it.

After eight months of playing, it's never let me down and I couldn't be happier. Again, some of the factory hardware is a little sketchy (namely the bridge, nut and the pickups). The rest of the guitar is superb.

Haven't needed it.

The bottom line on this guitar for anyone interested in a Brian May copy or just an alternative to the popular guitars out there: if you are looking for a guitar that you can play from the factory, look elsewhere. The Burns model seems pretty solid and affordable in this regard, not to mention the Guild model or maybe the K'z or the RS commercial models if you are rich. HOWEVER, if you are willing to do some modifications to THIS guitar for a fraction of the price I don't think you could do any better. The base guitar is very solid and plays beautifully. Including the original price of the DBM04-T, I have spent roughly $1000 CAD and invested approximately 8 hours worth of work on and I have a guitar that I truly love that is set up to my own personal specifications. And it cost me less than a Burns model would have! Highly recommended if you can do some modifications.

The "features" are why I bought this guitar. I normally play a '79 Les Paul 25/50 Anniversary Edition through a 50w JCM 800 Lead Series and Marshall 4x12, and I was looking for a reasonably priced, decent second guitar with something interesting to offer that the Les Paul can't possibly provide. Three single coils with phase-reversal switching provides a range of tones that the Les Paul can't touch. Considering the price, the mahogany body and rosewood fretboard are a steal of a deal and the construction is nice and solid.

I play rock. Overdriven tones with a lot of dynamic is what I'm into. I find the pickups to be somewhat lacking on the guitar. This is reflected in my rating. I intended to replace the pickups all along, so this doesn't concern me too much, but in reviewing the guitar as it came to me, the single coils sound a little thin and tend to be very buzzy. The middle coil is reverse wound, so you can buck the hum, but if you want just the bridge tone or something, you're going to be competing with a little hum. Despite this, the tones that they emit are quite nice, round warm, and the range of tones with the phasing is unbelievable. Flick one switch and it will sound like an entirely different guitar. Ultimately, I think the guitar itself is deserving of better pickups though, and I'm looking into some Adeson vintage trisonics.

The guitar is nicely set up. I was pleasantly surprised with the whammy bridge, which holds tune very well. The same with the tuning pegs. This guitar has a zero fret with a nut behind it to line the strings up, and the nut is a pretty cheap plastic thing which I had to file a little bit to make the strings sit on the zero properly. 15 minutes of work. I set the neck up and it holds tune beautifully. Intonation can be a bit of a chore though. Not sure why that is because it's an easy bridge to adjust, but I struggle a little to get it just right. The finish is absolutely beautiful. I have the sunburst model with a tortoise shell pick guard and it looks amazing. I don't think it could look any more beautiful.

It's hard to say how well it will perform in a gig setting. I'm still looking into replacing the pickups. Through the Marshall I was getting a lot of feedback, but I had it set up for the Les Paul. When I tweaked the amp settings a bit I was able to keep the feedback under control without any difficulty, but I really haven't had the guitar long enough to know how reliable it will be. I have been playing it through a Vox VR30R which seems more suited to its tones, and the feedback has never been a problem on that amp. I have had the guitar about a month. I don't foresee any problems based on how the guitar feels though.

Dillion has been very responsive to all my inquiries. I haven't had to get it repaired and there is no warranty to Dillions sold to Canada, but there is a warranty in the States. John Dillion himself corresponds when emailed, and I've been thoroughly impressed and happy with their service. Also the distributor (ezaudioelectronics.com) that I bought it from was very helpful. He threw in a beautiful hard shell case for free and shipped the guitar to me very quickly.

For me, I couldn't be happier with this guitar. It's got everything I wanted in a guitar to juxtapose my fat Les Paul sound. I've been playing for 10 years and already this guitar is teaching me new things about playing with such distinctive tones. I reiterate for anyone that wants a guitar to play as it is, you might want to spend more money and get something with really solid hardware, but I intend to change the pickups and replace the plastic nut with bone. For this purpose, I've got a solid-built guitar to customize to my specifications for a very reasonable price.

This is a post script to the previous review, to just expand on the main problem with this guitar, namely the absence of genuine Tri-Sonic pickups. I have since had these fitted and this guitar now sounds fantastic. It has amazing sustain, and a warm, thick, creamy tone that you associate with the red special guitar. I wont expand on this here as this is covered in other reviews (see Burns BM reviews). With the three pickups wired in series, plus the three phase reversals and on/off toggles you can also get a wide range of awesome sounds, that the factory fitted rubbish seriously failed to deliver. Its like having many guitars in one, sound-wise.


Looking at the factory fitted pickups, they appear to be some nasty strat clone junk with a tacky plastic cover, which did nothing for this guitar sound-wise or on the looks front.

The pickups I had fitted were the standard Burns Kent Armstrong Tri's, which I understand to be the same ones fitted to the Burns copy. I might have to see how the KA V serires Tris sound. Apparently these have a lighter, brighter tone due to few windings.

A word of warning. The KA Tris are a much bigger dimension to the factory pickups, and this required not only a new scratch plate, but also some routing of the body cavity to fit them in. It is not just a case of simply dropping the new ones in, so you might want to consider finding a good guitar tech to assist if it looks a bit much. Cost-wise the KA Tri-sonics and fitting cost a shade under what I originally paid for this guitar, but despite that it was well worth the effort. It looks great, and sounds awesome.

If you own one of these Dillion Red Specials, I would seriously consider doing this mod.

NOW it sounds bloody brilliant!!!!!! BEFORE it was firewood.

I bought a Dillion DBM04T on ebay for what I consider a fair price, since I have not seen a Red Special copy of any sort in this price range around my neck of the woods. Mine is a cherry red quilt top and I must say the finish and woodwork is excellent. The red is deeper than I expected, based on available pictures, but it looks very smart and the quilt top, which I was apprehensive about, is quite subtle (compared to the V series model) and really does look impressive. The solid mahogany body and rosewood fretboard also looks and feels great. The cream binding finishes the body very well (albeit single not multi as per the specs). The look and finish of this guitar is easily its best feature.

The balance of the guitar when playing is great, and the neck and fretboard also has a comfortable and accessible feel. The scratchplate looks ok, but is a bit thin given the pickup switches, volume and tone knobs are mounted on it. Being thin it is prone to distorting, especially around screws. I might replace this feature with a quality scratchpalate.

The bridge and trem is a typical and adequate "strat-copy" type, and so far works well enough. The 6 (black not white as per the original!) pickup/phase switches were a rather clever concept that have been taken from Brian Mays' original and they provide a good array of sound options to this guitar. This gives the guitar a fair amount of versatility, which is a huge plus. The tone and volume knob are ok in their dimensions, but being what appears to be a chromed plastic (?). Personally, for such a small cost, I wonder why proper chromed metal was not used, but the actual controls themselves work well enough. I will likely source out a better looking and more authentic set of knobs.

Unfortunately, while this guitar has many redeeming qualities (especially for its price), as other reviewers have found, it is seriously undermined by a few negative points and some misleading information. The first and main one being the pickups. These, as other reviewers have stated, are NOT genuine trisonic pickups as claimed on the Dillion website. I do not know what they are, but visually they are much narrower than real trisonics (either burns, kent armstrong, adeson or duncan seymour) and have plastic covers which look average at best. Soundwise they are not in the same ballpark as true trisonics, which for me was the biggest disappointment. Looking at the guitar it is quite obvious it has plastic pickup covers and I feel this seriously detracts from the overall good looks of the body, which is a shame.

My main concern with this issue is that firstly, I do not appreciate being misled by false advertising and product information, and secondly, owning a guitar that had genuine trisonics was one of the main reasons I purchased this guitar. Sound is pretty important to most guitar players, not to mention Brian May fans who will no doubt be attracted to this model, so calling a cheap strat copy pickup a "trisonic" is a serious cardinal sin (and quite likely a breach of fair trading legislation and copyright laws) that deserves a public flogging!!! Shame on you Dillion Guitars.

Having said this, given the price and the good qualities of the body I am definitely going to fit a genuine set of Trisonics to give the guitar the sound and looks it should have. Beware if you are not prepared to spend the time, money and hassle in doing this modification I would recommend you look at a Burns BM model, as the quality is assured. I am seriously considering getting a Burns after this experience, although I also do appreciate the irony that having purchased a copy of a home made guitar, I now have to do work on it at home!!!

The Dillion website also misleads on a couple of other matters, 1) the tuners are not grover locking tuners, and 2) the body is not multi bound, just single bound. The tuners are a brand called "Jimbo" and they look ok and so far I have had no problems, the guit

As a Red Special copy the sound and tone misses the mark seriously (no trisonics!!!), although as a general guitar it has usable qualities. It depends what you are after. As this is a red special copy, however, I have marked the sound score accordingly lower.

I plugged it into a Laney HCM 30, a pretty basic solid state amp. The sound is pretty bright overall, and even adjusting the tone accordingly never got too muddy, in my view. Another amp would no doubt yield a different result. If anything, this guitar sounds too bright and without the type of depth and tone you would expect from any Red Special copy.

Another reviewer said it sounds like a strat copy, and I would agree with this, although with the three pickups wired in series rather than parallel and the options provided with the 6 pickup/phase switches I feel there are many more sound options here. Even with the poor quality pickups (at least they are quiet), I can get some good sounds from this guitar, from rock and blues, smoother jazz tones and more thinner, sharper sounds useful for reggae/funk or as a contrast to a fuller, thicker sounds. Personally, I bought this guitar hoping to get the fuller sounds and tones associated with trisonics, and will once I fit new pickups, but the range of sounds even from the factory pickups has been worth exploring. If you are after the trisonic sound, and particularly the Brian May tone, this aint it!

I found the setup of the guitar from the factory to be quite reasonable. The action was good, although could be lower, and could be tuned and played without much ado. The bridge will require fine tuning, as can always be expected. This guitar, like the original Red Special, has a zero fret, and all strings sat correctly across it. The neck is set well, and is nice and straight. As I had imported this guitar from the USA to Australia I was concerned damage to the neck was a possibility, but the packaging was excellent.

In regards pickup adjustment, I won't go there, as I am ripping out the imposters and replacing with "real" ones. All I will say is that the neck pickup is much further from the strings than the bridge pickup.

The intonation was good from the box!!! This says good things about the setup.

The quilt top looks great, bookmatched well, although its quite subtle anyway.

Overall I really like the action fit and finish. Only (!) the sound really disappointed me, plus a few rather nasty plastic parts.

Only had it a while so not much to say, except that the use of chromed plastic on the pickups and tone and volume knobs can only cause problems later. Those pickups really irritate me.

The body and neck are solid and well finished, strap buttons look robust.

When I have emailed John Dillion he has been prompt and helpful, which is a good sign. He seems a nice fella.

Such a pity the same care was not taken over the finer details of this instrument, or the information presented on the website. Such inaccuracies are misleading at best, at worst an invitation for legal action. Perhaps the guys at Dillion had better get a reality check, they do many things well, but just need to sort out a few details.

I hope in future they get it sorted, because this really could be a fantastic product.

My rating tries to focus on the positive aspects, but I have to mark it down for the misleading product information and the poor quality of the pickups.

I have been playing guitar for a long time, and was really hoping this guitar was the real deal, as it claims. Without genuine trisonics there is no way it ever will be, and I would recommend those after an authentic Red Special look at the Burns and RS models, or (if you win the lottery!) the KZ model. If you enjoy modifying guitars this could be your thing. Alternatively, email Dillion Guitars and press them to start fitting the true trisonics they claim to already be fitting. My guess its that its a business decision for those guys, but really a few dollars on the price is a drop in the ocean for this particular model. Never compremise on sound!!!!!!!!!!

Having stated that, the body and neck are worthy of fitting better pickups and hardware, and given the modest price of this particular Red Special copy I have no problems doing so. I do, however, have an issue with a company that misleads buyers, this is morally and legally wrong. My advice to them is that the sound of a guitar is an essential ingredient, overlook that basic fact, plus mislead your customers, and you're a lost cause. (JD put me onto a good deal for a set of real trisonics and redemption is in sight!)

Do I like this guitar still? Yes, barring the pickups it looks good, its solid and feels great.....hopefully soon it will sound good as well.

This is Dillion's take on Brian May's Red Special, actually their second (as far as I know) after the Vietnamese model that has been discontinued. This one is made in Korea and mine has a nice vintage sunburst finish with cream binding. Binding is on the front of the body only. Also, only the front of the body is finished. The rest of the guitar is painted black except for the front of the headstock. Although not an accurate reproduction it was close enough for me buy it, especially considering the price. I was pleasantly surprised to find how solid and well constructed the body and neck were. Kudos to the Korean factory. They obviously take pride in their work. The rest of the hardware is nothing special and seems typical for a guitar in this price range so I won't say much about it.
Now for the main reason I'm writing this review: the pickups. As accurately described by Paul below these are not Trisonics at all but just run of the mill low-end stock single coils dressed up to look like trisonics. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you make it clear. My problem is that they are advertised on Dillion's site as trisonics (even if in a roundabout, cover my ass, sort of way). Now I'm making an assumption that 90+% of the people looking at this guitar are, like myself, Brian May fans. To these people the word "trisonic" (whether capitalized or not) means something very specific. So if Dillion is not trying to intentionally mislead us they should change their description immediately. Even worse though is that real Trisonics will not fit easily in the guitar's routing. The distance between mounting tabs is slightly greater than the actual hole making an easy switch out of the question, although it is possible as Paul has shown me. Had I known about this problem before hand I probably would not have purchased this guitar. I hope that any potential buyers will read these reviews first. After you do you may find these issues trivial, but at least you'll be aware of them. 'nuff said.

5 for neutral. Even though my question about the pickups was never answered I really didn't follow up. Maybe the mail server was down that day.

2004-5 Korea
24 frets
Same as review below basically

BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK!
As Paulus states below, this guitar does NOT come with trisonic pickups as advertised. I was told by Mr. Dillion that the pickups were made by the tri-people, (?!?!?) and were the same as the genuine Burns Trisonics pickups that came with the cheaper Dillion "V" series Brian May model, just with a different cover. They are not. I bought a set of BURNS tris to swap in and went to a gtr. tech/repairman and he clearly stated that the pickups were not the same. The size is COMPLETELY different. The real trisonics are MUCH bigger. Basically Mr. Dillion is a liar. He wanted to cut manufacturing costs on this newer model, but wanted to pretend that the gtr. was equivalent to the earlier "superior" V series model which actually got very good reviews. Also, the tuners are cheaper as well. They are not the grovers that come with the Burns or the Dillion "V" series, they are JIMBO's (?!?!?) and they do NOT hold in tune. After 5 minutes of mellow playing, the gtr. goes out of tune.
So, if you just want it for the admittedly good body and want to spend about as much to get it up to a Burns BM level, go for it. Me, I've returned this misadvertised disapointment and am getting a real Burns...

Sounds like a cheap strat.

pretty decent

Feels solid, but doesnt stay in tune

If you want to be lied to, customer support is there

17 years
The truth would have been nice...
never
it's pretty but it's a scam

This was bought new so is a 04-05 guitar. Unlike the previous reviews (below?) I have no connection with Dillion Guitars and will tell the TRUTH. My guiitar did NOT come with Trisonics. They were not Burns Trisonics, nor Seymore Duncan Trisonics nor ANY sort of Trisonics. Thay were a cheap ceramic "Strat" type P/Up with a "chrome" vapour blast Strat cover and a black plastic insert, to make them look like trisonics. The construction of the P/Ups was totaly wrong. The tuners were NOT Grover but marked "Jimbo". It does have a correct 14" scale length but the bridge is too close to the neck to allow proper intonement. It does have a full comliment of single tone and volume knobs and three on/off P/Up switches and three "phase" switches. The good points are that the body and neck are superb. One piece, solid mahogany body (no 3 piece crap here) with a fixed mahogany neck. The body/neck is that good that I am spending a fortune on upgrading the other parts (P/Ups, tuners, bridge, trem, etc.).

Despite not having the correct Trisonic P/Ups this Axe sounds pretty good, but the ceramics really do distort too much on an overdriven tube amp. Just too muddy. It can be made bright and clean and, surprisingly works quite well on this setting but sounds much better with the gen Trisonix I have just fitted. Why did Dillion not just spend the exra dime and make it right? The switching that Brian May gave it works well and does allow a good range of sounds. I have played it with the original pickups through a Peavey Transtube 112 (best clean sound), a vintage (1970s) Marshall stack and head (VERY muddy) and a Fender Twin Reverb (also 1970s Muddy but ok with no distortion dialled in)

When I received the guitar the set-up was non existant. The bottom E was not seated on the "0" fret, the action screws were all wound fully "up", the intonement was a token screwing of the saddles and the pickups were wherever. The binding at the body/neck joint is not correctly finishe but that is a minor point in the manufacture, it does not affect the guitar as a whole, but is annoying that the finish is only 85-90%. The main gripe is that the intonement is wrong and could not be set right. The poor quality tuners also has an affect on this score.

I don't think anybody has had this guitar long enough to make a considered opinion about its longevity so I have marked it low to offset the unrealistic "high" mark given by others (Mr Dillion and his brother?)

When I contacted Dillion I wrote this in my e-mail:

Hi at Dillion

I have just bought and imported to the UK a Dillion DBM-04 T "Brian May Red Special Copy" from Tony at "musiciansmate" and was disappointed to find that it was not fitted with Burns Trisonic pickups (as claimed for your "V" series, which I assumed would be fitted to the "better" Korean guitar), or even anything claiming to be "Trisonic" pickups, which your website claims (in fact just a chromed plastic cover!!), and was not a "multibound" body as in your WebPages, but a single bound body (OK so the genuine BM WAS single bound).

I have also found that the pick-guard sits "up" slightly around the knobs.

Worst of all I am unable to adjust the intonation of Low E correctly, even having relieved the nut to get that string to sit properly on the "0" fret.

I was considering importing a few Dillions, both the Red spec. and your Les Paul DC to the UK from Tony at musiciansmate (see attached E-Mail from him), as he was prepared to offer a good discount which would make the guitars very saleable in the UK. However being now in possession of a Dillion guitar I am not of a mind to pursue this, as I do not want unsatisfied customers troubling me with problems which are not of my doing but would become my responsibility.

I would however accept that the quality of the neck and body is very good indeed and it is only a couple of small details that let the show down.

Are the problems/faults with my guitar a "one off" or is this the quality I should expect from your company? If they are a "one off" then what pickups do you normally fit, and do you have a solution as to what I can do with the guitar I have now bought to fix those problems?

Your early reply would be appreciated and welcomed.

Best regards

Paul Turner
81 Dulverton Road
RUISLIP
HA4 9AQ
UK

John Dillion replied with:

Hello Paul,

I'm sorry you do not like my guitar. The pickups are made for me by the trisonic people. The website has a typographical error and should say bound body rather then multi bound body.Other then that I would probably suggest you don't purchase the Dillion guitars for your clientel.

John Dillion.

I do not believe his pickups are made by anyone who has anything to do with the Trisonic brand name and I challenge him to refute this here!

If you have any doubts you should follow his advice "I would probably suggest you don't purchase the Dillion guitars".

He did however reply quickly.

Whilst I have only played for a few years I act as guitar "tech" for my brother who has played semi professionaly for forty years. He endorses my sentiments on this guitar wholly. Between us we own a couple of dozen guitars and we are in the process of building two solid oak electrics. This guitar could have been a real top notch winner but is let down terribly by a few niggling faults. If tese were resolved then it would be a winner.
I was unable to try the guitar prior to buying as it is not available in the UK.

Mahogany body 3 single coil Burn's Tri Sonic Pups, Grover Tuners, 1 volume, 1 tone pot, 6 mini swithces made in Korea. Jumbo frets looks like the orginal Brian May Red Special. Purchased new.

This axe can be used for everything! I was just playing along with couple of those "Band In The Pocket" Blues backing tracks CDs (the blues verisions) just prior to writing this reveiw. I played it through a Peavey Blazer Transtube with reverb and it sounded awesome! From there through a Roland Micro Cube again beautiful sweet tone! After going through about 14 songs between the two CDs, I just started playing rock riffs this time using my ZOOM 505 II pedal.
The setting C1 on the Zoom is what Zoom calls "Eddie's Trible Boasters". This again outstanding tone! This guitar has a lot of sustain with or without distortion. By playing around with the switches, switching them in and out of fazes, you can get a lot of diffeent sounds form this guitar.

Set up was preety good from the factory including fret work, but I had it set up to suit me with lower action and 10-48 strings. Fantastic balance just perfect. I got to give it to Brian May, as a lot of may or may not know, Brian designed and built the Red Special from scratch when he was 16 with a little help from his dad. This was a totaly orginal design pickups, swithches, shape, headstock, trim, the works.

Dillion has done a great job coping and building a outstanding guitar. I think that this is a category that some guitars should not be rated in due to each individual is different. What is great out of the box for me may not be to your taste. Now on the other hand if there was lousy fret work etc. well yea trash em.

Well like they say "don't get withot a back up". I don't gig in a band so I am not concerned about that. However this axe very durable and would hold up well to live playing.

Well first let's start with Dr. Clucks where I purchased the guitar from. Ed returned my e-mails and was very helpful so 10 for Dr. Clucks. Now it gets better, I was concerned about this guitar not being made in Korea, so I e-mailed Dillion on New Years weekend expecting to here from them the week after.

Well John Dillion answered me back the same day and send a toll free number to call him! I called him that same day and spoke with him. Another great guy just like Ed at Dr. Cluck's. Mr. Dillion answered all my questions and I was go to go after our conversation. So John Dillion also gets a 10!

I have been playing for a few years now and own and have owned some nice guitars. This guitar is my favorite. Would I buy another one if it was lost or stolen? You better believe it. As a matter of fact, if the Dillion Brian May came in other colors I would buy them all.

This is the new Korean-made Brain May "red special" copy, not the Vietnamese one with the quilted top. From what I understand, its pretty much the same as the official Brian May guitar made by Burns for the past couple of years (though no longer available, apparently). The three pickups, three on / off switches, and three in / out phase switches give you a total of 13 different combinations, though if you go to treblebooster.com you can find wiring instructions that will yield a further 8 combinations - all of them humbucking (though the Dillion is not wired like the "stock" wiring shown on the site - rewiring requires starting from scratch pretty much).

As I mentioned, I've rewired it to give me access to the full 21 different sounds. Its an impressively versatile guitar as is, and over the top when rewired. However, a major key to the Queen sound is a treble booster pedal running into the "normal" channel of an AC30 (with the cut control employed to soften the top end). Any decent old-school type of tube amp should do, but plan on getting some sort of treble booster as it takes the sound from great to total Godhead! The distortion is creamy and rich and notes feedback effortlessly and musically but cleans up nicely when the guitar's volume control is rolled back. All those switches can produce some pretty whacked out sounds, but by utilizing the nicely-voiced tone control you can find at least one to sit in almost any mix, no matter how cluttered sonically (how else would Brian be able to over dub into the teens on songs with a single guitar and not end up with total mud?).

The low E nut slot needed to be filed a tad- 10 seconds effort from my guitar tech - and the trem springs tightened (a matter of taste), and it was good to go. The intonation was almost spot on, which is probably a fluke, but a pleasant surprise. The guitar is a blast to play - as soon as I put it down I'm thinking about grabbing it again (I had it in the studio with me, and every time I walked away from it I'd come back to find someone else playing it). The construction and finish are incredible for a guitar in this price range, and I know a thing or two about finish and quality from my days working at the Larrivee guitar factory. The woodgrain is strait and appears to be of excellent quality with no obvious fill work and the hardware seems to be pretty solid. My one quibble would be the plastic nut, but that's a small complaint as the guitar has a zero fret anyway.

I bought this guitar as a studio tool and hadn't really considered playing out with it: I figure there's sure to be one guy in every audience yelling out for "Bohemian Rhapsody" and I try to not conciously court hecklers. That may change in time as the guitar seems real solid and plays like a dream, once I get my head around the 21 sounds...

I've emailed the company a few times and have always gotten a response from John Dillion himself. In fact, I emailed him before the guitar had arrived by mail to ask a technical question and John gave me his phone number. I called the number and who should answer but John Dillion! He couldn't answer my question but he was pretty nice about it, and once the guitar arrived I was able to figure it out myself anyway.

I've been playing for 30 years, professionally for over 20. I've owned around 50 guitars over the years (all the classics from Fenders to Gibsons to Ricks to Gretches, etc.) and at least half as many amps (old Marshalls, Voxes, Traynors, and more obscure stuff) and have always gone for organic "classic" tones. I'm producing / recording more often than gigging these days, which has me focusing on the quest for great tones more than ever before. Time will tell if this replaces my ES 135 as my go-to electric, but the array of sounds, reliable quality, and fun-to-play factor guarentees that this will be a valuable tool.